Glimpses of a Forgotten Future in the Distant Past
by Meimi no Kage
Summary: A collection of short stories written for the glance reviver community on livejournal. [Theme 3: Dipan Time Machine added]
1. Theme 8: Boot to the Head

**Boot to the Head  
**_**by Meimi**_

Theme: #8 - The Heart of a God (...lol)  
Character(s): Rufus, Freya, random Aesir  
Warning(s): END GAME SPOILERS (VP2)  
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Square Enix, Tri-Ace or anyone who hold rights to the Valkyrie Profile series. It isn't mine, I'm just playing with it.  
Summary: Eternal life wasn't anywhere near being as cracked up as it was supposed to be. 

* * *

Rufus blinked heavily and stifled a yawn. The throne of Asgard was two shades away from being comfortable enough to fall asleep on. Odin must have had one hell of a hard ass. That's the only likely explanation for the padding-less dip in the center of the seat cushion, which was always a mite uncomfortable. He still wanted to sleep though. Listening to the usual, daily petitioners had to be the most boring thing ever and he would _love_ to be anywhere but here. But sadly, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Risking Freya's wrath was worse than anything _ever_. He'd rather be consigned to an eternity of listening to that lunatic, Lezard Valeth --the rat bastard--, wax on at length about his beloved goddess than have to deal with Freya in yet another snit brought about by his inability to act like a proper god, much less the king of the gods. 

No one said eternal life would be this miserable! 

Or maybe that was the point. Live forever, experience everything, realize how dull it all ultimately was and wish you could just die from it. Except, of course, you never did unless another lunatic surfaced in Midgard and decided that they didn't like you and "oh, wouldn't it be fun to create our very own separate world for the sole purpose of furthering our sexual harassment". It was a testament to just how damned bored he was that he even toyed with the idea of going down to see if Lezard had managed to get himself reincarnated or something yet. At the very least it would be better than listening to some idiot go on and on about the reasons for needing new barracks for all the Einherjar that had been stuffed inside of Valhalla over the ages. The great halls had been overpopulated with the souls of dead mortals for as long as anyone could remember, and didn't the Aesir deserve to have a little elbow room by now? Surely their lord agreed with such a plan of action. He still needed to breathe what with being a half elf and all, right? Cleaning out the place would make it that much easier on his oddly formed constitution. And hey, had that been some thinly veiled insult or something? He couldn't be sure, but he certainly wouldn't put it past them. It wasn't as if Freya didn't go out of her way to humiliate him in public if she thought it was necessary for character building. 

Hel, his life sucked. 

He should have stayed with Brahms and made Arngrim bring back that stupid, cursed --oh, excuse him, _holy_-- lance. It would have been the smartest thing he'd have ever done in his entire life. But no, he had to be responsible for once and bring it back himself and hey, maybe he could do a better job at ruling Asgard than Odin had. Yeah right, thanks to the knowledge gained through his own stint as king of the gods, it was a wonder that it took Odin that freaking long to go crazy. He almost pitied the old bastard. Nobody deserved to have to put up with this crap on a regular basis. 

A sharp crack impacted against the back of his head, nearly sending Rufus sprawling out of the throne and most likely right onto the petitioner. Did he-? Rufus straightened up after a moment spent wondering whether she was going to kick him again, gingerly licked his lips and tasted something that sizzled with just the faintest tinge of iron: blood --or at least as close as it would ever get for him again thanks to godhood--. Yep, he'd definitely bit his lip this time. Sparing a baleful glare at the goddess floating above him on his left, one that was returned tenfold, he leaned back against the seat and bent himself to the dull as hell task of paying rapt attention to the Aesir petitioner. 

No rest for the weary, and Freya would make him pay for every little misstep he made along the way. He wasn't Odin. He knew that. She knew that as well, and she was apparently quite dead set on making sure that he never forgot it either. 

Next time there was some universal crisis of grandiose proportions, he would be the first one to eagerly step up to the plate and become the next Valkyrie conglomerate. A fate of turning into sparkles was infinitely better than getting kicked in the head by a goddess of creation multiple times every damn day. Anyone who said otherwise obviously knew _nothing_ about women.


	2. Theme 7: A Memory Long Past

**A Memory Long Past  
**_**by Meimi**_

Theme: #7 - Lost Memories of a Former Life  
Character(s): Lezard, Alicia  
Warning(s): END GAME SPOILERS (VP2)  
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Square Enix, Tri-Ace or anyone who hold rights to the Valkyrie Profile series. It isn't mine, I'm just playing with it.  
Summary: Perhaps some things were not meant to be forgotten. 

* * *

Energy coalesced between his hands, light bending around itself endlessly at his will alone. An unspoken --almost unnecessary-- incantation whispered at the back of his mind, but he ignored it for the most part. That was not the point of this particular experiment. No, the point was to shed such antiquated procedures. Once they were dealt with, it would be that much simpler to improve upon the core magic itself. Not an easy feat for most, but mere child's play to someone such as himself. 

He smirked triumphantly as the removal of yet another redundant step in the original formula purified the spell's ether signature even further. Perfect. _Just as I suspected, this shouldn't take long at all._

"Aha! I found you!" 

His head whipped up from its intent study of the spell work, his hands moving nary a bit, at the familiar interruption. "Very astute deduction, Alicia," he said mockingly, though his smirk softened into a much friendlier smile at her presence, belying any sting that might have been perceived by her. 

"Ha ha." The young teenage girl stuck her tongue out at him as she squeezed her way through the broken doorway. Her heel caught on a jagged edge of the rotting wood for a moment, but a quick shake and a hop back freed it easily enough. "So this is where you've been hiding," Alicia muttered dryly as she whirled back around, her hands settling upon her hips, and stalked further into the room. 

It was much the same as the rest of the ruins dotting the landscape outside of the village: broken stone lay in heaps across the floor, rotting wood peeked out here and there, and there was even the remnants of some ancient tapestry hanging haphazardly from the far wall. All in all, the disrepair wasn't enough to be much of a danger to either of them, though it wouldn't take much at all for any of the younger kids to trip over some disaster or another out here. It was probably a good thing that they were all forbidden from ever venturing so far from home. Not that such censure ever stopped the two of them, of course. 

"I'm not hiding, exactly." He frowned in mild irritation as he turned his attention back to the light glimmering between his palms. "I'm merely avoiding certain individuals." 

"What for, Lezard?" Alicia huffed as she bent over a bit so that she could look him in the eye. "You know that no one will get onto you about doing magic. Heck, they'd all probably be overjoyed at you doing something else with those books of yours other than just reading them." Scowling lightly at his obvious refusal to meet her gaze, Alicia glanced around, then plopped down on the cracked stone beside him. "They're not exactly thrilled with you taking sword lessons with me and all." 

"I am aware of that fact," Lezard muttered unhappily as he pressed his hands together, the light winking out instantly at his command. There was no point in continuing the experiment at this point in time. He could already tell that it was going to be one of those talks. "However, I do not wish for them to become aware of the breadth of my skills with the arcane." 

"Well, why not?" Alicia asked, her tone bordering on exasperation as she rocked forward and eyed him suspiciously. "You're really good at it. And I mean _really good_. You're even better than that old sorcerer who passed through last year. You remember him, don't you? He was scouting out new students for that magic guild across the mountains. I bet you would have been accepted in a heartbeat." 

"Oh, no doubt." Lezard nodded in agreement. Really, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to get accepted _anywhere_. The guilds and academies would have fallen all over themselves to get a gifted individual such as himself enrolled at _their_ institutions. But the very idea made him faintly nauseous. Going --_back_-- to school would have been the most boring thing ever. "Unfortunately, they would insist that I take classes if they knew of my interest in it." 

"What's wrong with that?" Alicia smiled gaily as she nudged him with her shoulder. "At least you'd be good at them. I mean, come on, your sword work is abysmal. It's a wonder that the master even lets you touch a blade much less wield it. I swear, one of these days you're going to cut your foot off and I'm going to laugh myself silly when you do." 

Lezard chuckled at her bald statement, but did not refute it. It was the truth, after all. The scholarly pursuits of his early years had left him ill equipped for such strenuous activities. Still, it was quite exhilarating nonetheless. "Ah, but you see, that's the point," he explained, "I don't know a damned thing about it. That's what makes it so challenging." 

Alicia frowned and blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?" 

He smiled tightly in answer and gestured flippantly, flames dancing briefly across his fingertips at the simplest of calls. "It would be a fruitless endeavor to submit myself to magic classes. I already know all there is to know about the arcane." 

"Now there's the Lezard I know," Alicia chirped happily as she nudged him again with her shoulder. "Arrogant to a fault. But come on, you can't know _everything_. It's just not possible." 

Curling his fingers up into a loose fist, he frowned sadly and looked away. "No, I really do know everything. It doesn't matter what books they offer me on the subject, I already know every single thing that is written in them." He sighed then, his head drooping as he dropped his fist down into his lap. 

"I don't... understand," Alicia murmured hesitantly as she leaned forward and tried to catch a glimpse of his face. "Surely you couldn't have learned everything just yet. We're not that old, you know." 

Lezard shook his head and smiled cheerlessly. "I didn't learn a single thing from any of those books, Alicia. No one taught me any of what I know." He paused for a moment and then twisted his head towards her, his gaze meeting her own steadily as he continued, "I don't have to try. I just know all of these things inherently." 

Alicia drew back in surprise at his admission. That couldn't be right. No one just _knew_ things... Did they? "You mean, you just think about some incantation or whatever and there it is?" 

"It's not even quite as involved as that." Lezard shook his head once more and chuckled hopelessly. "But yes, that is the gist of it." 

"Oh, okay," Alicia muttered dumbly as she reached up and scratched at her chin in thought. Well, that was weird, but surely there was some logical explanation for it. People didn't just know things without ever having learned them, right? Oh wait! Maybe that was it. "Hey, I know," she clapped her hands together and beamed at him as she explained her idea, "I bet you were some great all powerful mage in a past life. And I bet all that magic must have been important to you. Maybe you just couldn't let go of any of it when you were reincarnated? That makes sense, doesn't it?" 

"Ah! Hmm." Lezard frowned for a moment as he contemplated Alicia's words. He _had_ considered that possibility before, but it had seemed so farfetched to him back then. Who in their right mind would ever remember their past lives anyway? Still, when she put breath to it, the possibility of remembering a past long gone seemed far more likely. Perhaps that was all he had really needed: a second opinion upon the matter. A second _trusted_ opinion. "I suppose. It's as good an explanation as any," he conceded at last. 

"There. That wasn't so hard to figure out, now was it?" Alicia crowed and shook her finger at him in mock reproach. "You brood too much. You should just ask me about these things first. I may not know magic, but I do know you." 

"I suppose so." Lezard nodded mirthfully in agreement, then abruptly climbed to his feet. He took a moment to brush off all the age worn dust clinging to his trousers before offering her a hand up as well. "Still, if that is indeed true, then I was not merely a great mage." 

Alicia looked up at him, an eyebrow arching in bemusement, as she took his hand and allowed him to pull her up. "Oh really now, then what, pray tell, were you?" She asked teasingly as she straightened up, taking a second to stretch her back out. If this was going to start becoming a habit, then she ought to see if she could dig up a spare chair or something of the sort. Sitting hunched over on these stupid stones all the time was going to give him an awful backache. 

Lezard smiled softly as she twisted her hand around in his grip, her fingers lacing through his own in a more familiar hold. "Isn't it obvious?" He grinned in superiority at the questioning look she cast his way. "I was the greatest mage who ever lived." 

Alicia snorted in amused disbelief. She could always trust him to have the most audacious and elevated opinion of himself ever. Humility, thy name was not Lezard Valeth. "Sure you were, and while we're at it, I was a princess in my past life. And not just any princess, mind you. No, I was the sole heir to some grand, long lost kingdom sought after by the gods." 

"You never know."


	3. Theme 3: Only a Matter of Time

**Only a Matter of Time  
**_**by Meimi**_

Theme: #3 - Dipan Time Machine  
Character(s): Dallas  
Warning(s): CHAPTER 4 SPOILERS (VP2)  
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Square Enix, Tri-Ace or anyone who hold rights to the Valkyrie Profile series. It isn't mine, I'm just playing with it.  
Summary: He could not fathom the why of it, but he went nonetheless. 

* * *

Peace reigned in Dipan. The sun shown high in the sky, sending even the ghosts of shadows to flee from its brilliance. Silence lay across the island kingdom like a blanket, smothering out everything ere it reached the heart of the royal city. It was a peace not known to the living. A peace that could only be found in death. No life flourished in what had once been argued to be the grandest kingdom in all of Midgard. No soul was fool enough to brave the soil upon which the gods had wreaked their vengeance. 

Dipan was dead. 

The living shunned the cursed island thanks to their overriding fear and apprehension. It was a state of affairs that was perfectly acceptable and quite desirable to that which still remained. 

Deep beneath the castle, in a place forgotten by all, one such creature stirred. The time machine had been built with the greatest of care. Not even a god could hope to destroy such a magnificent construct with ease. It was to this place, and this place alone, one of the demon residents found himself being drawn to with aggravating frequency. He didn't exactly know why it was that he returned to this irritating room with its infuriating seal time and time again. While it was true that the machine could bestow unparalleled power upon those who could utilize it properly, it would take far more strength than he or his compatriots possessed to break the seal set down by the Valkyrie, Hrist. So _why_ did he find himself returning to this place again and again and again? What secret, what mystifying enigma could it possibly hold that it could entice such alien yearnings from within his very being? 

He knew that the source of whatever this thing was, this inability to forget about the damned machine for any given length of time, was a remnant of when he had once been human. The fact that he referred to himself as a he rather than an it was telling enough that such things still existed somewhere in him. The others thought it was a delightful amusing idiosyncrasy of his. One that could be poked and jeered at whenever they were feeling sociable. Personally, he found it to be the most frustrating thing he had ever known. He was no longer a human. Frankly, he scorned such pitiable creatures. At best they were food and entertainment, at worst they were ants to be culled when they became too numerous to ignore. 

They were stupid creatures, nothing compared to the vast grandeur of the undead. Less than nothing to a demon such as he. 

And yet still he returned, a hundred times over now _at least_. He had long since stopped trying to keep count of the many visits he made to the sealed time machine, but he knew they were starting to get ridiculously numerous. And really, what was the point of keeping a tally? Until he could recall exactly why he desired its power, a desire that had somehow managed to survive his unholy transformation, then he very much doubted that he'd be able to restrain himself from visiting it upon the morrow or the following day, so on and so forth. 

_Why?_

Gnashing his teeth together in agitation, the demon who still answered to the call of Dallas stretched forth his hand and ran his claws along the impenetrable seal. The air above the machine sparked with arcane runes and a sick hissing sound broke the oppressive silence. His skin burned as the spell prohibited him from venturing any closer, but he did not flinch from it. He was a demon, such things as pain were only an ancient and oft forgotten memory. It was only to the divine that he gave pause, but even that only just. He would figure out the puzzle of this seal one way or another. One day it would fall to his will. 

_Alicia._

The demon's eyes narrowed as an oddly familiar sounding name invaded his mind. Somehow he just knew that it had once been something infinitely important to his human self. Yes, that was it. This Alicia had been the reason for everything, perhaps even his transformation. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't make himself remember why, could not even recall who or what this Alicia was or what it even looked like. Still, this new nugget of information was something he could work with. It was even something he could strive for. How marvelous. 

Regardless of whether this Alicia still existed or not in the present time, it most certainly did in the past. That must be why he kept returning to this place. Something deep within him, something _human_ that still lingered, desired to use the great machine for the very purpose it had been made for: to surpass the bonds of time. 

It would take great time and effort to break the seal set down by the Valkyrie, perhaps even Ragnarok itself would arrive before he was done. But he would do it. The human remnants that existed within him wished to see this Alicia again for one reason or another. And why not? If his suppositions were correct, then he owed this _Alicia_ his thanks for what he had become. He might be a demon, but that didn't mean he couldn't properly express his gratitude for such a boon. 

Yes, that would be perfect. And it would also be a wonderful opportunity to mete out his own brand of vengeance upon those imbeciles who referred to themselves as gods. After all, he owed them for the destruction they have inflicted upon _his_ Dipan. He may have only been a lowly human at the time, but that was certainly no reason to ignore their presumptuous violation. Indeed, now that he was a demon, it was more than enough reason to visit suffering upon such egotistical creatures. Blood demanded blood, after all. 

Time was the only true hindrance to him now, but soon enough, even a thing such as it would no longer matter.


End file.
